Us and the Bottle Man

haps I did, too, for when I peered out at the cave entrance again there were two or three bluish, wet stars in the piece of sky I could see, and the rain-sound had stopped. Jerry was huddled up at

en in my life. The gray spread till the whole sky was the color of zinc, with the sea a little darker, and then one spikey yellow strip began to show on the sky-line. I could see Greg at last, with the jersey under his head, and the white brocade waistcoat all dark and stained at the shoulder, and his poor dear face ghastly white.

h keep watch in case one came. Just as Jerry crawled out of the cave and stretched himself stiffl

en here all

then I cried, "Don't try to move, Greg

tant he knew why. I couldn't do anything but c

stop cryi

ng the rocks and Wecanicut came out green and brown. Jerry came

sk you. How long does it t

ry, myself,-that is, not the kind of hungry you are when you've played tennis all morning and then gone in swimming. T

me for us pretty soon. I didn't feel at all sure of this, because I knew that Father would never have given up the Sea Monster the night before if he'd had any id

me tumbling around t

, come qui

long afterwards, when I found a bruise as big as a saucer and remembered then. Jerry didn't need to point so wildly out across the water; I saw the boat before he could say a word. It was

ave heard us, but we thought that they might see the white shirt flying up and down. The boat was tacking a long leg and a short one. The long one carried

about on the short tack is

fore, and the long leg carried it so far away that it was no more

bit, Chris?" Jerry s

e catboat began another short tack. It was just then th

they're running it up and down," Jerry said. "They're tryin

n't blame Jerry for being

no use in wasting any more breath and our throats were quite split as it was. When the catboat came a little nearer we saw that there was only one man in it, and, sure enough, an old blue jersey was tied to the f

bumping up against my throat. To save time, before the man landed, Jerry started to shou

little brother fell off the top and is hurt awfully, and" (this was just as the man climbed ashore on the sea-weedy

us very hard, particula

!" Then he looked

oked from one to the other of us and nodded his head to himself. I suppose we did look very queer,-quite dirty, and Jerry with the tin-foil-buckle

I have arrived in the nick of

were doing one of our plays, and then suddenly

e me to

, we should have wondered how on earth he knew Greg's name, because neither of us had mentioned it. But we didn't think of

and not twinkly at all and he went down on his knees (he c

en, "I wonder who had

r." Then he changed again, and instead of being all so

said. "Gerald, come with

erry did put it on and ran after him, tucking up the sleeves. I s

ome, we're going home!" a

what seemed a long ti

Gregory, you and G

aper, too. I'd heard of starving people falling on food and rending it savagely, but I never knew exactly w

h a blue wrapper that you keep in First Aid kits-and a book that had "Coast Pilot Guide and Harbor Entrances of New England" on the cover. I didn't see what he could want that for, except on

orer," Greg ex

said, gnawing the loaf, and I thought it seeme

reliable way, and then he said to Greg, "I

ook his hea

you for

lt, but none of us had

id, as he was gathering u

ght, I must say,-just a wob of blue flannel tied with a strin

ffed it away in the kit-bag. He was

embarkation, and I'm afraid I'll

e was brave, because it must have hurt like anything, even then, and I could see his jaw set hard. Jerry and I gathered up the kit-bag and the jersey and what was left of the skirt and followed along. Just beside t

ree Poore

red at each oth

d to pretend being marooned, but we n

ry said

what's your

r man, "because I must keep the woun

w, but my intimate friends